living seed bank

permaculture

start a veggie garden

project grow

vegetable a to z

WHAT IS “THE GREEN REVOLUTION”

“Green" being the most misnamed 'event' in our entire history.
This was based on the idea that hybridisation offered a solution to world hunger.
Preliminary tests promised considerably higher yields.

Unfortunately, hybrids are "cultivated"/developed under controlled conditions.
When adopted by main-stream agriculture, hybrids did not adapt to the various climates and soils across the world.

This led to the need for (ever-increasing) chemical fertilisers.

AND YET the "Green Revolution" STILL became the basis of modern-day agriculture - one of the ‘ungreenest' and most devastating environmental nightmares we could ever find ourselves in!!

Hybrid seeds are the first generation offspring of two distant and distinct parental lines - of the same species.

Hybrids are bred with an emphasis on yield at the expense of hardiness and resistance.

Hybrid seed is therefore a "high response" seed.

Reliance on these seeds enforces the use of chemical inputs.

Modern hybrid seeds require large amounts of water.

Farmers have to use more and more chemical fertilisers, pesticides and use more water, as hybrids do not adapt to soils, cycles and climate.

The Natural Living Systems, that all life depends on (eg. the living soil systems, pollinating & other beneficial insects) had been taken out of the equation.

These natural systems began the slow and steady collapse that is still not fully recognised and therefore the "madness" continues unabated. (In the US - there is a serious danger of bees becoming extinct).

As natural systems broke down, and predator insects diminished pests numbers increased.

Chemical pesticides persist in the environment for months becoming weaker and weaker (some never break down completely).

Target pests began to develop resistance to the weakened pesticides, creating more demand for more chemicals with higher potency and so the cycled continues to this day!!

EFFECT ON COSTS

This increasing reliance on multi-nationals for seed, chemicals, bigger & better machinery and expensive water systems, drove up production costs for farmers.

Farmers had to 'invest" huge capital in these new technologies.

Most farmers "bonded" their land for the capital and had to pay increasing interest rates.

Failed crops now meant farmers lost their land, or had to borrow more from unscrupulous Land Banks.

Many of the world's farmers are trapped into a cycle of debt and so the cycle continues!!

Reliance on capital machinery and chemical fertilisers meant that fossil fuels became intrinsically linked to commercial agriculture as we know it today - which now (in hind-site) poses serious risks to ALL our food security.

AND THEN CAME GMO'S . . . STUPIDITY or GREED?

Genetic engineering has been presented by its proponents as a panacea for many of the ills of current agricultural practices.

It is clear that the impetus of GMO was profitability and not about solving the already critical agricultural problems.

GE is a product of proprietary science, which is driven by Intellectual Property Rights.

Proprietary science is bad science because it is secretive, and not open to public scrutiny, nor criticism.

BIO-PIRACY and BIO-PROSPECTING

Bio-tech companies are "prospecting" for genetic material for genes with certain traits to be introduced to another species.

By-laws that allowed bio-techs to patent "a life-form" in the first place now allows them to patent active compounds in plants, even without changing them.

This means that bio-tech companies can hold the patent on the worlds genetic material - including the human genome.

Bio-piracy is when a bio-tech company profits from traditional knowledge and/or plants without prior consent.

EXAMPLES OF TRAIT GENES

Toxic BT (Bacillus thurengensis) is a toxic bacteria that has been used by organic farmers for years as a natural pesticide because it does not persist in the environment.

GE scientist introduced this toxic gene to make a host plant produce this pesticide within its own cells - so in essence making it permanently available for pests to develop resistance, and not as simple for consumers as washing off the pesticides.

The anti-frost gene of fish has been introduced to host plants to be more frost-resistant.

HOW A GMO IS MADE:

Certain trait genes of any species can be "spliced" into a host species.
This trait gene would not be accepted by a host gene, so there has to be a 'switch on' gene or "promoter gene" attached to the trait gene so it can penetrate and be accepted by the host's gene.
Viruses are used as promoter genes because these already have powerful promoters that trick the host gene into accepting it as its own and duplicate the viral protein instead of its own.
Usually an aggressive virus is used that will cause a high level of "transgenic" proteins to be made.
The trait gene, with it's promoter gene, has to be "tagged" to know if it has been "successfully" introduced into the host gene.
The tag is done using an antibiotic resistant 'marker gene', and is attached to the foreign trait gene, and multiplied.
This "cassette" of foreign genetic material (transgenic protein) is then inserted into the host gene.

This happens in 2 ways:

One way do do this is using a gene gun where the transgenic protein is 'blasted' into millions of host plant cells.
Another way is to use a tumour causing bacteria (that is able to penetrate DNA) to "infect" the host gene with the new transgenic proteins.
Then the new tissue cultures are multiplied and developed into plants.
Plants are tested to see if the new genetic material has taken by looking for the marker.
"Suitable" plants are then multiplied though seed or cloning the new plant tissue.

IMPACTS OF GMO'S

GMO's are cross pollinating with natural strains.

By creating different crops, each bearing the same or very similar genetic sequences, GE will lead to a further loss of genetic diversity in crop species.

GMO's have been found to cause anomalies in liver and heart cell replication in sheep fed on GE Maize.

As a GE plant biodegrades, the novel genes will also be taken up by soil bacteria, and could cause an exchange genetic material.

Artificial gene transfer vectors constructed by genetic engineers could give rise to new pathogens.

It is hard to predict disturbances or damage caused by the introduction of foreign genes into an organism, or the effects of ingesting "unstable" genetic material will have on us. These will only be discovered once it is too late to turn back!

SOUTH AFRICA'S GMO TIME-LINE

1997:First Commercial Release of GMO's in SA Agriculture in the form of "Round-up Ready" Crops. Likely that local strains of maize and wheat are already contaminated with GE.
1998: AfricaBio formed as a "front" organisation to lobby GE crops to African Governments as a way to solve hunger, and to ensure no trade barriers on GE seeds were formed.
1998-2004: SA became the 6th highest GE field trial expansion in the world (next to Canada where Rape Seed (Canola) has been found to be 100% contaminated!)
1999: SA passes the GMO Act. Independent review declared that the Act was " ...a cynical disregard for contemporary international and national environmental principles..."
2000: South Africa did not sign the BIOSAFTY PROTOCOL. The same year over 120 permits for "field trials" were granted by SA Dept Agriculture.
2002: Field Trials of Bt Cotton in Makhatini Floodplains (Northern KZN) Monsantos Flagship/"Trojan Horse" project. All ARC research on this project has not been made available to public.
2008:To date over 300 field trials (on around 500 000 ha) of Commercially planted GE Crops. (These numbers could be much higher, as there is a severe lack of transparency).